In a first from Lely, visitors to this year’s National Ploughing Championships will not only have the live milking exhibition to enjoy. There will also be a live demonstration of how Lely produces and assembles its unique mower bed by replicating a mini version of its Splendimo mower production cell from the company’s facility in the Netherlands.

Farmers and contractors will have the opportunity to see at first-hand how a Lely Splendimo modular mower bed is assembled. According to the company, this will help the spectator understand why Lely mowers have the lowest horsepower requirement and fuel consumption rates in today’s market place.

Lely states it has been well proven worldwide and in independent trials that a Lely Splendimo mower requires 20% less horsepower than other brands, leading to a fuel saving of a least a litre of diesel per hectare mown.

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Explaining the concept, Joe Roche from Lely said it was during the Irish dealer trip to the Lely factory in the Netherlands last December that the idea came about.

He said: “Our new dealers were really impressed with the modular cutter bar production cell and one of them suggested that we should consider doing it at the Ploughing.

“I didn’t take it seriously at the time but a seed was sown and this spring we gave it some more consideration. Our experience with the live milking stand over the past two years gave us the confidence to design and plan the event and what better way is there to show it to farmers than to replicate a mini version of the Splendimo production line in Maassluis in the Netherlands at this year’s Ploughing.

Modular cutter bar

Joe went on to explain that Lely designs and manufactures its own modular cutter bar, which is fitted to all Splendimo disc mowers. This Lely invention is made up of universal mowing units, which are directly driven by a flexible hexagonal shaft. Consequently, this cutter bar contains far fewer gears than any other cutter bar, which results in outstanding output, according to Lely.

The company says this also ensures that in the event of damage to the bed from contact with a foreign object, it can be quickly and easily repaired.

It is claimed there is no need to take the whole bed apart as each disc unit can be removed individually, repaired and quickly reinstalled, saving time and ensuring low maintenance costs. This will be demonstrated on site by two Lely employees from the company’s production line in the Netherlands.

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Ploughing 2015 special coverage: www.farmersjournal.ie/ploughing